'Tis the season!!

This is the time of year that we all eat way too much!!! We had a wonderful time in Troutdale at Grandma & Grandpa's house. Friends of ours, Laurie, Mike & Monica White joined us for dinner, as did Tony's girlfriend, Katy. we had a great time visiting and of course eating. I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Marc put up our Christmas lights before we left to go to the "Valley" last week. We had been debating about what kind of lights we were going to put up this year, it was between colored or white. We have been using icicles for several years and decided to not use them this year. I think Marc did a wonderful job, what do you think?


Then, of course mom and I went to the Fred's "sock sale". If you know mom and I at all you know how crazy we are on Black Friday. We have been getting up at 5:00 am (and sometimes earlier) to go shopping for as long as I can remember. There were no fights this year, it was actually pretty mellow, we even attempted to go to Wal Mart again this year, Even though we vowed last year not to ever again.

I have been working on our Christmas cards feverishly for the past two weeks. I am hoping to get them in the mail by the end of the week!

Big news in the scrapbook world, the Scrapbooker of the year was announced and she is on the new CK cover for January, check it out here...

Congratulations to Elizabeth Kartchner, I am jealous!!

I'd better get going, gotta get the boys out the door to the bus and get some work done on my Christmas cards. Have a wonderful week!

Check out Geoff's Birthday gift!

As you know Geoffrey turned 18 last week, of course he had to get a tattoo! It turned out great, although I was worried he might pass out in the beginning.


We had another busy weekend, as usual, I was at Scrapadoodle on Saturday all day for Debie's 10th anniversary. It went very well, we many gals come in for the make and takes, plus a couple that scrapped for a while. Thanks, Deb, for having me!

I headed over the mountain to the "VALLEY" afterwards, to stay at mom and dad's. Dad really spoiled me this weekend. He made dinner Saturday and Sunday night. We were able to just sit and talk, which we haven't been able to do for a while.Sunday was the vendor fair at Mary's. There were a lot of ladies there and I did very well on sales, I can't wait to go back next year. Thanks, Mary!!! Alter Ego rocks!

Marc and the boys went to Prineville on Sunday to spend some time with Grandma & Grandpa.

So, now it's back to work for all of us. Next week the boys and I are out of school so hopefully I will get some free time to myself!! One can hope.

Have a great week!

Happy 18th Birthday, Geoff!!!

Happy Birthday, Geoffy!! I can't believe you're 18 already, I guess that makes me old! I hope you have a great day!
The whole family was able to get together on Sunday at Olive Garden to celebrate..
Tony & Katy


Geoffrey & Alicia
Happy Birthday, bud, we love you!


Creating Keepsakes Convention
Mom and I went to Seattle last weekend for the CK Convention. We had a great time and learned some new techniques. We were able to meet some really great people like Lain Ehmann, who is a contributing Editor for Simple Scrapbooks Magazine. See her blog here.. http://knitandpurlgrrl.blogs.com/scraphappy
We also met Ali Edwards again, she is from Creswell, Oregon and is very big in the Scrapbook "world". I admire her style and how she is trying to make people aware of the "basics" of scrapbooking. See her blog here... http://www.aliedwards.typepad.com/

I am so thankful to have been able to spend so much time with mom. We don't really get to see each other much and I am glad that we share scrapbooking as our hobby, it really gives us something to do together. Thanks, mom, I had a blast, oh and I can't wait to get back to the beds at the Hilton!!!!

PS If you are in Gresham this weekend come see me at Alter Ego Salon 50 NW 2nd Street from 11-4 for the Vendor fair. I will be selling some great paper crafts including my cards. There will be many other ladies there selling lots of stuff!! I hope to see you there!

I hope everyone has a great week!!
See ya soon.

Happy Fall!

As you may have noticed I changed my blog appearance a little, I have done this in light of the season. We had our first snow last week! OK, so it was a dusting, but it covered the ground either way! Although I have been enjoying our 65-75 degree weather lately, I am anxious for some REAL snow to fall. If you had asked me 3 years ago what my feeling was about wintertime I would have probably said I really dislike it. I have to chalk this up to the many years of brutal weather in the beautiful Columbia River Gorge. Don't get me wrong, I love the Gorge and I really miss the green and the scenery, but I have to say that I don't really miss all of the rain that comes with that. Corbett is my hometown and it always will be, but I am becoming very fond of Bend's weather.

I held a class last Saturday for accordian envelope albums. It is made with legal size envelopes from the local office supply store.I did this one for "K" as a little gift to let her know we enjoy having her around.

The tags come out and you can adhere a photo or journal on them. I haven't included photos on this one yet.

Last Sunday we went to the Pumpkin Patch in Terrebonne, we had so much fun. They have a huge pirate ship made out of hay bales and of course a conr maze. We ate kettle corn and carmel apples, we even had homemade rootbeer. It was great!


Mom and I are off to Seattle this weekend for the CK convention,check it out at creatingkeepsakes.com. I can't wait, we get to see some of the women I really look up to in the scrapbook world. Yes, I am a groupie and proud of it!!

This is Lisa Bearnson, she is the founder of Creating Keepsakes Magazine, I am so impressed with her story. She started this multi million $ business from her home 10 years ago.

I gotta go, we are in the middle of the Indiana Jones trilogy, the boys have never seen any of them. It is fun to watch them see it for the first time. Have a great weekend, everyone! For those of you in Corbett, look us up next weekend, Marc and the boys will be in town. (hint, hint, C.R.!!! 541-948-3382)

Scrapbook projects

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What a handsome guy!! I can't believe he is a senior this year!!! Where did the time go? He will be 18 in November!!! This is the altered clipboard I made for my last class.
Anyhow, as usual our life this past week was crazy, busy! Between picture day at school, field trips and my new subbing job at the school I feel like I am constantly going, going, going. I finally got my sub # so I can sub part time for any other EAs that may need some time off or call in sick. It is a nice few extra hours and I love being at the school anyhow.
I have been very busy making cards and explosion boxes for Mary's vendor fair. I am very excited to see how people respond to them. I also got an idea from mom who got the idea from someone else who got the idea from someone else..... to make gift card holders. They are really cute. Now I just have to find or make envelopes to go with them.

They open up and you put a gift card in and give it to someone as a gift!

I also have been working on some new cards.

CK Seattle is coming up in a couple of weeks. For those of you who don't scrapbook, this is a convention put on by Creating Keepsakes Magazine. All of the who's who in scrapbooking will be there. So far Mom and I have met Ali, Lisa, Stacy, Tracy White and Sandi Genovese. It's great fun, usually we volunteer in classes, to get a lot of freebies and meet some really cool people. I can't wait to take a little "ME" time. I really need a break from all of my projects and work!

I hope everyone is doing well!

P.S. This is why I scrapbook. The boys are finally getting to the age where they will actually pull out a scrapbook and look through it. I love watching their eyes light up when they remember a special event and talk about all of the fun we had.

This night Beau pulled out the Disneyland album and they had a blast showing "K" all of the fun places we went. She has never been out of Bend so, it was really neat for her to get to see some of the places we saw and it was cool to hear Beau talk about everything he could remember. This is why I scrapbook!!!